Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

[Afro Thunder]

I started this one as my first campaign in BI. Right off the bat you have to deal with a few cities that are suffering from some redness of the face if you get my meaning. That's because the settlement's official religion is Pagan, and it has a majority of Christians. Wreck the Pagan temple and build a Christian shrine in those cities. Stabilizing your internal situation should be your first concern, then you should worry about the Sassanids. You're at war with them at the start of the campaign.

[Azi Tohak]

I started this one as my first campaign in BI. Right off the bat you have to deal with a few cities that are suffering from some redness of the face if you get my meaning. That's because the settlement's official religion is Pagan, and it has a majority of Christians. Wreck the Pagan temple and build a Christian shrine in those cities. Stabilizing your internal situation should be your first concern, then you should worry about the Sassanids. You're at war with them at the start of the campaign.

Yup, breaking the Pagan temples also gives a little money, but the main thing is then moving your newly released troops (because no more religious problems) up to the front to deal with the inevitable Sassanid Army.

For me, the biggest problem early on is how to deal with the darned Katanks (err... Clibanarii... yeah... that's it). With their fantastic (or dreadful) armor, they can stand up to any missles you try to chuck at them (the laugh at pilum!). But the good news is that they are NOT killing machines. They do not kill very quickly (their rolling pins are not good at much besides bread you see). However, the Persians don't have very many, and won't for a long time (high on the building tree). The best you can do in battle is match your best infantry against the Clibanarii (Comitatenses etc), try to encircle them, and use your lousy infantry, missles, and your own general's cav (you DID remember to include a general right?) to smash the rest of the Persian army. After you chase that horrible infantry off the map, you can then just smash the Clibanarii with numbers. It won't be pretty, but it will work eventually.

In term of strategerie, I like to hamstring the Persians ASAP. Meaning I break their initial invading armies (and their Clibanarii too!) as fast as I can. I did notice for me that the Persians like to go after Caesarea. Since I have an MA of 200, not the standard 80, I can quickly relieve it from Antioch, but that is something to keep an eye on. Then I take Hatra (enslaving) and then, after I have smashed armies trying to relieve Hatra, I go and sack Ctesiphon, destroying as many buildings as possible! Bad Azi But hey, it works! If you hold onto Hatra long enough (religious problems in Ctesiphon make it unpleaseant to hold), you might get lucky enough to have the ERE rebels appear. I likes my buffer states!

Now then, you have smashed Persian power right? The next problem are going to the hordes. Personally, I HATE fighting smoke (aka Horse Archers) so I like to let the AI besiege Constantinople or Thessalonica (I usually just abandon Sirmium), and then crush their armies against the edge of the battle map. Is it fair? Nope! But it works.

To be honest, once I get here... I start to get bored... I'll be back later with more advice.

Azi

[Prometheus00]

Eastern Roman Empire BI

In RTWBI, the Eastern Roman Empire may seem extremely vast and unorganized at first glance but this isnt the case. The ERE is actually quite fluid and easily controlled once you sort out some initial problems.

First, you must destroy all Pagan shrines and convert all cities to christianity as this will surely help you control your empire and prevent riots at the start.

Immediately after converting your empire to christianity it would be wise to consolidate your military forces in each region using a border defense strategy. Meaning, you should consolidate your Northern border units, Stirmium to Constantinople, by fortifying each bridge crossing with a fort and medium size garrison. The same strategy can be employed at your Eastern border, Antioch to Jerusalem, albeit with slightly greater intensity

I prefer a medium size stack in each fort, as opposed to placing 1-2 giant stacks in key locations which will result in fewer engagements with relatively easy fights, and a screening force beyond the crossing. In my opinion, using the bridge fortifying startegy and placing several medium size stacks in each fort will allow more control of your empire and result in more fights; generally more exciting and challenging. Also, if you build the forts infront or before each bridge crossing this will allow emplacement of a small screening force on the bridge itself to slow and wear the enemy down before the major battle.


So, after you have converted your empire to christianity and consolidated your military along your Northern and Eastern borders it's time to manage your cities and build your empire! I prefer to build my Empire economically rather then militarily, which will definately prove useful later in the game. I first build all financial type buildings in each city with a focus to stay unified and not let any one city flourish or outpace each other, comparatively speaking. This strategy, when playing the ERE, really provides your Empire with more fighting ability later in the game by ensuring you have the funds to continually train units.

When playing ERE, I build in this order:
Roads
Markets
Docks
Land clearance/Farming
Mines
Academies - Advanced Religious buildings


Thus, after you have completed all financial and growth oriented building then it would be wise to start construction of your military infrastructure. Now, there is a few exceptions when playing the ERE, in regards to military type buildings. It's wise to set Constantinople and Antioch as your major military providers at the start of the game and continue with this approach until your ready to march on Italy.


As for tactics, the bridge crossing strategy will work wonders in your Northern border against the Vandals and/or Huns. Generally, at each crossing you sould build the fort infront of the bridge and then deploy screening forces to slow down or deter the enemy from using this route/bridge.

I prefer to use a mixture of archer cavalry (2-3x), light cavalry (2x), and spearmen (2-3x). I use small size armies to accomplish the screening tactic, which saves alot of cash but it still very effective.


Well, after you sort the mess above it's time to march North (Italy) and East (Persia) and fulfill your conquests. I will post once I have beaten the campaign on very hard. (Im at about the beginning-end atm)

[darsalon]

Having read up on a couple of beginning posts with the ERE I started a game with them and have now hit probably mid to end game with them.

I'll reinforce what other people have said with getting rid of the pagan temples and killing off the Persians asap. With the concentration on the eastern front I have merely carried out a holding action against the few attacks I have had to contend with on the western front. Maybe because I've been playing it on Medium level but the hordes have barely touched me so far.

Anyway, the Persians. Watch Caesarea in central Turkey as that's one I've found the Persians were going for a lot, even when I was knocking on the door at Ctesiphon. There is an ideal route from the Persian regions in the northeast to Caesarea that needs to be watched. For invasion, as previous posters again mention, Hatra, Ctesiphon and then swing round in an anti clockwise direction to mop up. I sack them each time myself. None of this enslaving rubbish . Wipe em out so it makes it easier to then get the survivors onto Christianity asap.

In battlefield fighting Persian infantry is normally levy spearmen when you face them so most units you have will be able to deal with them ok. The main threat is the Cilibrani (however you bloody spell that!) which requires a couple of lines of legio lancieri or higher to soak up the initial charge before then charging in cavalry or another infantry unit behind them. When they're getting crunched from all sides then eventually you'll get them.

Western Europe area. That's been reasonably peaceful. I gave up sirmium fairly easily after the Huns rolled through and left it as a rebel city for around 30 years. That's been a buffer zone whilst I've built up a network of alliances with most of the barbarian factions which has held fairly well for most of the game. As a result I haven't had the "fun" of fighting horse archers yet and also has meant my military buildings aren't as highly developed as in the east. Therefore this stage of the game is a combination of economic growth in the east and military buildup in the west to take the Rome and Carthage target regions.

Really I've found this faction to be good fun but not that challenging once the Persians have been dealt with. From there on in it's economic/military powerhouse time

[Afro Thunder]

Speaking of Caesarea, in my campaign the Sassanid faction leader decided to place the city under siege, all by himself. What was he thinking?

[Prometheus00]

Having read up on a couple of beginning posts with the ERE I started a game with them and have now hit probably mid to end game with them.....

Really I've found this faction to be good fun but not that challenging once the Persians have been dealt with. From there on in it's economic/military powerhouse time

Agreed.
I've been playing on VH/VH and I have to agree that even on this difficulty the ERE are quite easy to maintain and develope but are still an exciting, stable faction to play.

I also agree the Northern border from Sirmium to Constantinople is fairly easy to defend against the Hordes. I prefer to "defend" the Northern border and "attack" the Eastern border (Persia).

Love the expansion, just wish they would come out with a multiplayer campaign version based on the RTW.

[Sleepy]

I've just won an ERE campaign and here are some of my thoughts:

At the beginning I changed the religion of many pagen cities to christianity. Though I left Athens and Thessalonica for the mid game and forgot about Kydonia for a while.

Like many here my initial strategic plan was to hold in the west whilst dealing with the Sassanids. For my eastern army I used a mixed force of infantry, eastern archers and horse archers with the occaisonal light cav for mopping up the runners.

However my expansion plans were restricted by my fixing the EREs economy by first building docks and roads, then other trade buildings. I only built military infrastructure at Antioch and Constantinople.

In the west I kept an army on the Danube, I didn't bother with forts. Most hordes avoided me on their traipse west. I did destroy the Vandals who sneaked across the river whilst my army was out of position. However a combination of attacking stacks who were detached from the main horde and the big Constantinople Garrison made short work of them. My western army was infantry, eastern archers and a few light cav. Later I added horse archers to the mix after watching the eastern armies success against the Sassanids.

During the mid game both the Lombards and the Slavs attacked however I was able to slaughter them at various bridges.

The WRE attacked me after I took the rebel controlled city of Salona which meant my plans to invade Italy were advanced by a decade. It was also the easiest campaign my armies ever undertook. Of the 6 cites I captured from the WRE the biggest garrison was 150 men.

A mistake I made was to over garrison my cities with lime(?) troops. 10 to 15 per city. This greatly reduced the profits I could invest per turn and also meant I could only afford 2 field armies. Later I disbanded most of them replacing them with peasant garrisons where neccesary.

Eastern Archers are excellent at destroying horse archers and as they develop experience become more effective against heavy infantry attacking from the front

Toxic hippos are excellent anti bandit troops, they also supply mobile fire power to field armies.

Carriage Ballistas are so over the top its unreal.

[andrewmuir]

I started this one as my first campaign in BI. Right off the bat you have to deal with a few cities that are suffering from some redness of the face if you get my meaning. That's because the settlement's official religion is Pagan, and it has a majority of Christians. Wreck the Pagan temple and build a Christian shrine in those cities. Stabilizing your internal situation should be your first concern, then you should worry about the Sassanids. You're at war with them at the start of the campaign.

How do iou wreck a pagan temple?

[jhhowell]

How do you wreck a pagan temple?

Right click, then click on the hammer icon. Just like destroying any other building (aqueducts in Alexandria and Constantinople, for example - very very handy for some early cash while reducing excessive population growth).

I haven't tried this yet, but I think you can get away with keeping some of the pagan provinces as is, which would then allow you to upgrade troops at Mithras temples. I plan to try being as pagan as possible in my next ERE game. The one positive side of going all Christian is that it should strengthen the WRER - if Cyrenaica flips Christian, Tripolitania will revolt, while if Cyrenaica stays Pagan Tripolitania can remain Pagan as well. The western Balkan provinces can likewise push Salona into revolt if they go Christian.

[Mithras]

It's quite a good idea to have some temples of the opposing religion. not only for the perks of said temple but it gives you somewhere to pack family members of the 'wrong' religion to.

The same can be said for Pagan factions-simply use a Christian city as a priest factory.

[jhhowell]

It's quite a good idea to have some temples of the opposing religion. not only for the perks of said temple but it gives you somewhere to pack family members of the 'wrong' religion to.

The same can be said for Pagan factions-simply use a Christian city as a priest factory.

What, exactly, to priests do? Is whatever bonus they give nearby units worth the bother? I've always disbanded the buggers on sight, and never even considered building new ones. Better to have that 100+ maintenance going towards limetanei, archers, 2-3 peasants, whatever. The monks in the Badon Hill scenario didn't have any effect strong enough for me to notice.

Personally I don't worry too much about the religion of individual governors. If they're good they're almost certainly worth the 5-10% unrest of a religion mismatch, while if they suck they shouldn't be governors at all. Loitering in the province is a good default task for bad governors of a minority religion, I suppose. Though I'm partial to getting them killed off fighting large rebel stacks, myself.

[teja]

What, exactly, to priests do? Is whatever bonus they give nearby units worth the bother? I've always disbanded the buggers on sight, and never even considered building new ones. Better to have that 100+ maintenance going towards limetanei, archers, 2-3 peasants, whatever. The monks in the Badon Hill scenario didn't have any effect strong enough for me to notice.

Well Romans do have units enought to stand against most threats without priests, but they are worth to use! For example I once used to play the Goths, which have only fair spearunits to defend a bridge, but are always close to get routed when under hard preassure and enemy missles. If you have some priests behind them making their songs those units will stand much longer and in most cases the spearmen will easier get anhilated insted to get routed. This way is easy to boost your defence with priests, which also scare the enemy a little bit. So always try to use priests to boost your defence. Mounted priests for Vandal armies are great as they can move fast to any point at the battle field...
So: Priests only boost own forces, but are no match alone. So test and judge for your own.